Today's News

The annual list of substandard bridges in North Carolina is out, and AAA Carolinas’ has named the Cape Fear Memorial Bridge—that steel drawbridge that connects Brunswick to New Hanover County—as number 10 on its top-20 list.

Kitten season has begun at Cat Tails. Maxine and Missy are 8-week-old sisters who would love to find great new homes where they can romp and play. To see them, call Cat Tails at 253-1375 or visit its Web site at www.cattails.org. You can visit Maxine and Missy, as well as all the other cats and kittens available for adoption, at Cat Tails in the Corner Stone center at 6622 Beach Drive in Ocean Isle Beach. Visiting hours are 11 a.m.-1 p.m. Wednesdays, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturdays and 1-3 p.m. Sundays. Other hours are by appointment. Cat Tails is also desperate for volunteers.

Like many other business operations in this economy, the newspaper industry isn’t faring so well.

Across the country, newspapers—large and small—have had to make significant cuts to staffs, production and products. Pay freezes, furloughs and unfilled vacant positions are steps taken by some to keep doors open and people in their jobs.

CALABASH—An attorney for Calabash Town Center argued for a height variance Tuesday while a representative for the adjacent Thistle talked about pursuing legal channels as well, charging the proposed multifamily development is incompatible with the Thistle’s single-family homes.

Attorney Bob Burris of Charlotte, representing developer Shallotte Partners of Calabash Town Center, was responding to the town’s rescindment of a conditional use permit at Tuesday night’s town commissioners meeting.

There’s a slob and a neat freak sharing an apartment, a loudmouth cop and a disastrous double-date with a couple of upstairs neighbors, but the Brunswick Little Theatre’s latest production of “The Odd Couple” is not what you’d expect.

This year, longtime BLT member Thom Clemmons decided to direct playwright Neil Simon’s female version of the popular play, which Simon rewrote for a female cast in 1985.

One of my daughters relayed a story to me with the comment it might be a good column. The tale involved a supermarket bagger who was also living with Down’s syndrome.

Scoffers might quickly race to Snopes to check out its veracity. Cynics might well sneer at its simplicity. Fable, fiction or fact everyone can glean value from most narratives, no matter how accurate the details might be.

This presentation about Johnny, the supermarket bagger in Akron, Ohio, fits the description of valued and valuable sketches.

SHALLOTTE—The Carolina Harley-Davidson Dealers Association opted not to choose Shallotte as the site of its official spring rally, but the owner of the town’s new Harley dealership has decided to have his own celebration during Bike Week.

Last week, the association announced it was moving its Spring Beach Rally, set for May 10-17, from Myrtle Beach, S.C., to New Bern.

Most entertaining team: A young North Brunswick girls’ basketball team showed it has the talent to be dominating, but lack of consistency for what essentially was a junior varsity was the key factor in many of its losses. The Scorpions reached the second round of state playoffs. They should be fun to watch next season.